Cowboys vs. Vikings Stock Report: Brian Schottenheimer, Matt Eberflus fail team

The Dallas Cowboys were thoroughly outmatched on Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings, a team that found out just hours before kickoff that their 2025 season was over for all intents and purposes after being eliminated from the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys knew before the game that their playoff hopes were clinging to life support. They had to win their final four games, and even if they pulled that off they were not guaranteed anything. Still though, in the name of controlling what you can control, it was their chance to prove that they were ready to fight to the end. That didn’t happen.

Here is our Stock Report from the fallout. It is an almost-fully down type of event.

Stock Down: Brian Schottenheimer

As noted, this was a game that the Cowboys had to have. They knew it. We knew it. Everyone knew it.

Dallas was coming off of a Thursday game and had the mini-bye to rest up and prepare for their final sprint where they needed to run their race and hope for help outside of it. But as we sat down hoping to see a 10-round fight for a playoff spot over the next few weeks, the Cowboys got knocked out in the first. They didn’t even make it to inside of a week to Christmas for the party to be over.

We can understand and rationalize that this is not easy. The Cowboys are trying to do something difficult and were trying to climb out of a huge hole (a self-inflicted one to be clear).

But these last two weeks have undone some of the good will that Brian Schottenheimer earned for powering his team through the previous three wins (talking about football to be clear here, obviously this team has been dealing with a tragedy that transcends a game). It is harder to look back on the three wins and feel like they were stout and not more of a result of an Eagles team struggling with their identity and the Chiefs falling apart (oh and the Raiders). Brian Schottenheimer had a chance to pass the test on Sunday, passing in general would have been fine, and he flunked it. His team was unprepared and he was conservative to make things even worse.

Stock Down: Matt Eberflus

I do not enjoy ever calling for anyone to be dismissed, but I have no idea how the Cowboys are continuing to go at this. Eberflus has had a mostly terrible season and while he deserves the context of having his best player traded away before the season began, that does not justify things like rushing three players on a critical fourth down.

The comparisons here to Mike Nolan are obvious and this situation feels like that one in that it cannot go on any longer. The Cowboys have a huge defensive problem, and just allowed a quarterback in J.J. McCarthy who is just now learning the game to waltz all over them.

What? How? Why? What? Again? How???

Stock Down: Jerry Jones

It is obviously easy to always point the finger at Jerry Jones when things go wrong with the Cowboys, but it is necessary here. This team has been dealing with fixing themselves since he and the rest of the front office broke them even more after the 2023 Wild Card Round. This 2025 team was never built together properly, and when they tried to get more involved at the 11th hour, it was too late.

There are no lessons being learned here. This team is repeating the same mistakes and actions and hoping for different results because reasons.

Stock Down: George Pickens

It is hard to know who to blame here, but Pickens was a huge non-factor on Sunday night. The contrast for me is that CeeDee Lamb bounced back mightily after a tough game against Philly a few weeks ago and Pickens did not do so in this game following his outing against Detroit.

To be clear, I am very much still Team Extend Pickens ASAP, but I am also curious as to why he seemed to be a lower priority for offensive involvement than KaVontae Turpin at one point. What’s the deal?

Stock Down: Caelen Carson

The Vikings picked on a weak link. We are deep enough into the Caelen Carson era at this point to be able to say that the Cowboys don’t exactly have an All-Pro on their hands.

Stock Down: Kenneth Murray

It is interesting how the Cowboys seem miffed with Trevon Diggs, and still trot Kenneth Murray out week to week. Murray is quite frankly the worst defensive starter on the team. He is out of position on multiple occasions each game, and the only explanation for it all is that the coaching staff trusts him because he has earned it through time that we do not see. That matters if it is the case to some degree.

But to what extent? How can the Cowboys put him out there when he is such a point of weakness? Why? These are more than fair questions.

Stock Down: Brandon Aubrey

He missed two field goals in a game that the team ultimately lost by eight points. That is pretty relevant. The Cowboys might not have won the game if Aubrey hadn’t missed any kicks, and we all know he has more than earned his keep through his time on the roster.

Stock Up: Bryan Anger

The toss backwards on the fake field goal was awesome.

Stock Up: Javonte Williams and Malik Davis

You could call this the Klayton Adams award, but the Cowboys have some serious running backs on their hands. Javonte Williams runs with such power and that was on display again in this game, even when he came back after dealing with the shoulder issue.

Malik Davis deserves a lot of props in his own right for stepping in while Williams was ailing. It was not easy work and his plate became more complicated in the second half when Hunter Luepke was out with a concussion.

Stock Up: Ryan Flournoy

There is no doubt who WR3 is on this team moving forward. Ryan Flournoy has staked his claim. He has been one of the most positive finds across this season overall.